Hi, everyone.
It's exciting to see how popular FlightAware's community and forums have become. In the nine months since FlightAware become public, the discussion forums have seen over 12,000 posts from over 1,000 of FlightAware's tens of thousands of members.
However, I think it's time to address the regular frustration and hostility towards the new members of FlightAware -- I have to admit that it's really disappointing to us to see the FlightAware "regulars" biting the FlightAware "newbies" on their first post.
The "General" as well as the "Features & Requests" forums both have an announcement post now that is titled, "WELCOME TO FLIGHTAWARE - Please Read BEFORE Posting!" It explains to new members that they should read the FAQ and search the forums before posting.
However, if a new member misses that and posts anyway, one of the best solutions is to follow the old adage of, "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." It's perfectly acceptable to ignore a post that is redundant or frustrating to you -- definitely no need to scold or for multiple people to complain about the trend.
If you'd like to reply, it can definitely be a one-liner. For example:
Regular wrote:
Newbie wrote:
Hi, what time zone are flight times displayed in?
Welcome to FlightAware -- please see:
http://flightaware.com/about/faq.rvt#timezoneor
Regular wrote:
Newbie wrote:
I think I found a bug while tracking flight XYZ123, it shows ( . . .)
Welcome to FlightAware -- please see this thread on that topic:
http://discussions.flightaware.com/exampleThey'll "get the hint," figure out the problem themselves, and be more likely to look in the FAQ or search before posting future topics. Once they're on board, they can help out other newbies.
Overall, everyone should enjoy the forums & relax. Nobody's obligated to help, but if you're going to reply to the new folks asking questions, please be civil & helpful.
Fly safely.
Daniel
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